Index-tracking products and funds drew in more money in Japan in February, according to new figures.

Exchange traded funds and products listed in Japan gathered net inflows of $2.48 billion in February, according to data from ETFGI.

As a result, in the first two months of this year, ETFs and exchange traded products listed in Japan have gathered a record level of $9.24 billion in total, the research group said in a report.

In total, there are 170 ETFs and ETPs in Japan, with a total of 225 listings and carrying assets in total of $131 billion, from 21 providers.

“February was another volatile month for equity markets. The S&P 500 closed the month down 0.13 per cent. Despite recent uncertainty, emerging markets gained 0.31 per cent in February, while developed markets outside of the US declined 1 per cent,” said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.

ETFs are typically open-ended, index-based funds, with active ETFs accounting for less than 1 per cent market share. They can be bought and sold like ordinary shares on a stock exchange and offer broad exposure across developed, emerging and frontier markets, equities, fixed income and commodities. Exchange traded products are similar to ETFs in some ways but do not use an open-end fund structure.

The use of other structures including unsecured debt, grantor trusts, partnerships, and commodity pools by ETPs can, in addition to a significantly different risk profile, create different tax and regulatory implications for investors when compared to ETFs, which are funds.